Oil soluble taggants

ABSTRACT

A process for detecting oil or lubricant contamination in the production of an article by adding a Stokes-shifting taggant to an oil or lubricant of a machine utilized to produce the article or a component thereof, irradiating the articles produced with a first wavelength of radiation, and monitoring the articles for emission of radiation at a second wavelength. The taggant can be in the form of a composition containing a Stokes-shifting taggant, which absorbs radiation at a first wavelength and emits radiation at a second wavelength, different from said first wavelength, dissolved or dispersed in an oil or lubricant.

RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional ApplicationSer. No. 61/490,403, filed on May 26, 2011, the contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

Disclosed herein is a light wavelength converting material for taggantapplications and quantitative diagnostics.

Environment

In the processing and packaging of various consumer products, oils,greases and lubricants may come into contact with the product.

Typically, lubricants can come into contact with consumer products dueto leakage of lubricants through gaskets or seals, from slidingmechanisms, from drum systems, from gear boxes, from pumps, from sealedrolling bearing units, from chains and belts, and the like. For example,lubricants are used in a variety of machines commonly used in thepreparation and packaging of produce for market.

Since lubricants of similar compositions are used throughout the variousstages of produce treatment and packaging, it is often difficult for themanufacturer to locate the source of a particular lubricant. As such,the manufacturer is forced to conduct a time consuming search for thesource of the lubricant which is lowering the quality of themanufactured products.

One possible way to detect the presence of undesired lubricants would beto add a taggant to the lubricant that could be readily detected on-lineand at production speeds. However, suitable oil soluble taggants are notknown to exist.

Therefore, it would be advantageous if an oil-soluble taggant could bedeveloped that would enable inspection to be conducted on-line, in realtime, during the production process.

SUMMARY

In one form, disclosed is a fluorescent taggant composition, comprisinga Stokes-shifting taggant, which absorbs radiation at a first wavelengthand emits radiation at a second wavelength, different from said firstwavelength; and an oil or lubricant.

In another form, disclosed is a taggant composition, comprising anoil-soluble fluorescent taggant and an oil or lubricant.

In yet another form, disclosed is a compound comprising atetrabutylammonium chloride complex of Indocyanine Green (ICG).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The forms disclosed herein are illustrated by way of example, and not byway of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and inwhich like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a representation of the infrared absorption and emission peaksof the Indocyanine Green (ICG) complex taggant, illustrating theStokes-shift;

FIG. 2 is a representation of the infrared absorption and emission peaksof a modified ICG-complex, illustrating a secondary emission peak;

FIG. 3 is a representation of the infrared absorption peak for themodified ICG-complex of Example 1;

FIG. 4 is a representation of the infrared excitation and emission peaksfor the modified ICG-complex of Example 1; and

FIG. 5 is an H-nuclear magnetic resonance scan of the ICG-complexaccording to this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects will now be described with reference to specific formsselected for purposes of illustration. It will be appreciated that thespirit and scope of the apparatus, system and methods disclosed hereinare not limited to the selected forms. Moreover, it is to be noted thatthe figures provided herein are not drawn to any particular proportionor scale, and that many variations can be made to the illustrated forms.Reference is now made to FIGS. 1-5, wherein like numerals are used todesignate like elements throughout.

Each of the following terms written in singular grammatical form: “a,”“an,” and “the,” as used herein, may also refer to, and encompass, aplurality of the stated entity or object, unless otherwise specificallydefined or stated herein, or, unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise. For example, the phrases “a device,” “an assembly,” “amechanism,” “a component,” and “an element,” as used herein, may alsorefer to, and encompass, a plurality of devices, a plurality ofassemblies, a plurality of mechanisms, a plurality of components, and aplurality of elements, respectively.

Each of the following terms: “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having,”“comprises,” and “comprising,” and, their linguistic or grammaticalvariants, derivatives, and/or conjugates, as used herein, means“including, but not limited to.”

Throughout the illustrative description, the examples, and the appendedclaims, a numerical value of a parameter, feature, object, or dimension,may be stated or described in terms of a numerical range format. It isto be fully understood that the stated numerical range format isprovided for illustrating implementation of the forms disclosed herein,and is not to be understood or construed as inflexibly limiting thescope of the forms disclosed herein.

Moreover, for stating or describing a numerical range, the phrase “in arange of between about a first numerical value and about a secondnumerical value,” is considered equivalent to, and means the same as,the phrase “in a range of from about a first numerical value to about asecond numerical value,” and, thus, the two equivalently meaning phrasesmay be used interchangeably.

It is to be understood that the various forms disclosed herein are notlimited in their application to the details of the order or sequence,and number, of steps or procedures, and sub-steps or sub-procedures, ofoperation or implementation of forms of the method or to the details oftype, composition, construction, arrangement, order and number of thesystem, system sub-units, devices, assemblies, sub-assemblies,mechanisms, structures, components, elements, and configurations, and,peripheral equipment, utilities, accessories, and materials of forms ofthe system, set forth in the following illustrative description,accompanying drawings, and examples, unless otherwise specificallystated herein. The apparatus, systems and methods disclosed herein canbe practiced or implemented according to various other alternative formsand in various other alternative ways.

It is also to be understood that all technical and scientific words,terms, and/or phrases, used herein throughout the present disclosurehave either the identical or similar meaning as commonly understood byone of ordinary skill in the art, unless otherwise specifically definedor stated herein. Phraseology, terminology, and, notation, employedherein throughout the present disclosure are for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting.

Provided are new oil soluble, light wavelength-converting, preferablyupconverting, compositions for taggant applications and quantitativediagnostics in connection with lubricants, such as by way ofnon-limiting example, the detection of errant lubricants on product thatcomes into contact with lubricated machinery. Other taggant applicationsare contemplated, including, but not limited to, anti-counterfeiting,brand protection, or verification that a machine contains a correctlubricant, and other possible applications. A detection system enablesthe development of near real time, low cost, compact, portable andhighly sensitive detection, monitoring and diagnostics of modificationsto manufacturing process systems in real world environments. It is theunique process (e.g. the conversion of visible light to infrared light,infrared to visible light and the upconversion of infrared to higherenergy infrared) that enables high sensitivity detection against almostany sample or environmental background.

Using the system, theoretical particle detection (10²³ mol) of moleculesadded to analytic mixtures can be achieved through the use of on-lineverification methods and even handheld detection applications. Detectionsensitivity of 10⁻²⁰ mol is possible in a variety of detection schemes,and even direct visual detection of 10⁻¹⁴ mol sensitivity has beendemonstrated using a hand held 3.0 to 9.0 volt laser diode systemagainst backgrounds of various colors and compositions. The narrowemission bandwidths and small particle size of these materials enablethe simultaneous detection of multiple analytes (i.e. multiplexedassays).

According to the present invention, a detectable taggant compound isadded to the various lubricants used in manufacturing and processingmachinery, and advantageously taggant compounds having differentcharacteristics are added into the lubricants at different processinglocations, such that detection of one or more of these taggant compoundscan enable rapid identification of the location of the source oflubricant contamination in the manufactured product.

Advantageously, the taggant compound is one which is detectable byfluorescence when it is exposed to particular wavelengths of light. Inparticular, a suitable taggant is one which absorbs energy at onewavelength and fluoresces/emits at a different wavelength. Suchmaterials are well-known in the art as Stokes-shifting materials, andhave recently found increasing use in inks for security marking ofdocuments, such as banknotes and the like, to render such documents lesssusceptible to counterfeiting or copying.

However, most conventional Stokes-shifting and anti-Stokes shiftingmaterials are composed of inorganic compounds, such as doped rare earthmetal particles as described in U.S. Published Patent Application No.2010/0219377, which are insoluble in lubricants. It would beadvantageous if taggant compounds could be formulated to be soluble ordispersible in oils or lubricants.

According to the present invention, the taggant may be an organiccompound comprised of purified crystals from naturally occurringchlorophyll. Suitable naturally-occurring chlorophyll crystals includeChlorophyll A (CAS number 1406-65-1) and Chlorophyll B (CAS number519-62-0). These taggants are known as being down-converting orfluorescent, and are sensitive to excitation at a particular narrowbandwidth of IR light (680 nanometers). The taggant emits light at adifferent wavelength (715 nanometers). A similar compound may be abenze-indolium perchlorate or a benze-indolium tosolyate. Such materialsabsorb at around 670 nanometers and emit at a wavelength of about 713nanometers. The chemical structure for Chlorophyll A is provided below.

Since this compound is an organic chemical, it is readily dissolved inoils and lubricants.

In another form, an oil-soluble fluorescent material has been developedbased on Indocyanine Green (ICG), the chemical structure of which isprovided below.

ICG is sodium4-[2-[(1E,3E,5E,7Z)-7-[1,1-dimethyl-3-(4-sulfonatobutyl)-benzo[e]indol-2-ylidene]hepta-1,3,5-trienyl]-1,1-dimethyl-benzo[e]indol-3-ium-3-yl]butane-1-sulfonate,an infrared fluorescing compound currently used in the medical industryfor imaging cells and blood flows in the human body, which in itsconventional form is water-soluble.

The newly developed taggant is an ICG-complex available from PersisScience LLC, Andreas Pa. The chemical structure for a tetrabutylammoniumchloride complexation of ICG is provided below and analytical structuralinformation is provided in FIG. 5.

The new ICG-complex is sensitive to a particular narrow absorption bandof IR light between about 760 to about 810 nanometers (FIG. 3), andemits light at a different band between about 810 to about 840nanometers (FIG. 4), with discrete absorbance peaks at about 785nanometers (FIGS. 4) and 805 nanometers (FIG. 1), and a discreteemission peak at about 840 nanometers (FIG. 1).

The ICG complex can be added to oils or lubricants in the amounts ofapproximately 1 ppb to 5%, preferably a range of 1 ppm to 2000 ppm,based on the weight of the lubricant.

Additionally, the nature of the ICG complexing agent can be modified toimpart one or more secondary NIR reflectance wavelengths adjacent to themajor emission peak at 840 nanometers. By utilizing such variations inthe complexing agent, and adding differently complexed ICG compounds inlubricants at differing locations in the overall process, a singledetector can be located at the end of the process, and whencontamination is detected, the contaminated product can be removed fromthe process and further analyzed for said secondary NIR reflectancepeaks, to determine the location of the source of contamination. FIG. 2is an illustration of the absorption and emission peaks of a modifiedICG-complex, showing a secondary emission peak of a longer wavelength onthe shoulder of the primary emission peak.

The detection system of the present invention can be used in manyprocesses and for consumer products which are susceptible to lubricantcontamination during the manufacturing process, such as for example inthe growing, collection, processing and/or packaging of packagedconsumer goods, such as food products, beverages, tipped and non-tippedcigars, cigarillos, snus and other smokeless tobacco products, smokingarticles, electronic cigarettes, distilled products, pharmaceuticals,frozen foods and other comestibles, and the like. Further applicationscould include clothing, furniture, finished wood or lumber or any othermanufactured or packaged product wherein an absence of oil spotting isdesired.

The taggant can be added to process machinery lubricants in minoramounts, so as to obtain ultimate concentrations in the oil/lubricant aslow as between about 10 ppm and 100 ppm, typically at a concentration ofabout 50 ppm. At these taggant concentration levels the detection systemcan detect as little as 10 microliters of oil, or even as little as 1microliter of tagged oil.

However, in order to provide for easier treatment of oils or lubricantsalready in place within various machines, it can be more convenient toformulate a master batch of the taggant in any particular oil, whereinthe taggant is mixed at higher concentrations in the base oil/lubricant,such as from about 0.1 to about 5 wt % taggant, or even from about 0.2to about 2 wt % taggant, in a balance of the base oil/lubricant. Aportion of such tagged master batch is then easily transported and addedto oils/lubricants which are already in place in the machines to betreated, for example by adding a small amount of the tagged master batchto the oil sump of the machine.

When the taggant is not an oil-soluble taggant, such as when it is aninorganic particle, an optional surfactant or dispersant additive can beadded in an amount effective to facilitate dispersion of the taggantparticles in the base oil. Such surfactants/dispersants are well-knownin the art and their identities need not be repeated herein.

Specific forms will now be described further by way of example. Whilethe following examples demonstrate certain forms of the subject matterdisclosed herein, they are not to be interpreted as limiting the scopethereof, but rather as contributing to a complete description.

EXAMPLES Example 1

500 mg of complexed ICG (Product No. OT-1013, available from PersisScience LLC of Andreas Pa.) is dispersed into 1.0 kg of Klüberoil 68using a speedmixer. Klüberoil 68 is available from Klüber LubricationNorth America L.P., Londonderry, N.H. The material is mixed for 10.0minutes at a speed of 2100 RPM. The resulting master batch concentrateis slowly added to an additional 100.0 kg of Kluberoil 68 while stirringunder high speed dispersion. A sample of the material is placed into aShimadzu 5301 Fluorometer and the excitation and emission spectrographsare recorded. When excited at a wavelength of 785, a strong infraredemission is noted from 810 nanometers to 960 nanometers. See FIG. 3 fora representation of the infrared absorption peak for the ICG-complex ofExample 1 and FIG. 4 for a representation of the infrared excitation andemission peaks for the ICG-complex of Example 1.

Example 2

The above example is modified slightly using a tetrabutylammoniumbromide complexation of an Infrared dye IR830, available fromSigma-Aldrich of St. Louis, Mo. After mixing, it is noted that thematerial will produce fluorescence around 833 nanometers when excitedwith approximately 0.5 mW of 785 light.

Example 3

Upconverting nanoparticles, MED C-19 (Yb₂O₃:Er³⁺), were obtained fromPersis Science, LLC in a slurry format in DMSO. The DMSO was dialyzedfrom the aqueous phase leaving the particles in aqueous phase. Theparticles were dried and dispersed into Kluberoil 68 using a Speedmixer.The dispersion was measured optically using a Spex Fluorolog-3. The oilsuspension was excited at 970 nm and the detection occurred in thevisible from 400 to 700 nm to determine the presence of the tagged oil.

Example 4

0.5 wt % of a europium chelate, available from Honeywell Corporationunder the trade name of CD-335, was incorporated into 99.5 wt % ofLubriplate 220 oil using a horizontal media mill. Adequate detection wasachieved using UV LED's at a wavelength of 363 nm and an APD detectorwith a 600 nm-700 nm notch filter.

Example 5

1.0 wt % of an infrared absorbing dithiolene dye commercially availablefrom Epolin, Inc—358 Adams St. Newark N.J. 07105, was dissolved viamixing with 99 parts of Kluber Oil 220 under nitrogen with a stir barfor 5 hours. The resulting mixture was analyzed for infrared absorption.The absorption occurred from 800 nm to 1200 nm with a peak at around1060 nm. The detection was achieved by contrast imaging with a CognexIn-Sight vision system and using a Monster LED light system with awavelength of 850 nm. A Midwest optical filter 850 bandpass was used toisolate the absorption.

While the present invention has been described and illustrated byreference to particular forms, those of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the invention lends itself to variations not necessarilyillustrated herein. For this reason, then, reference should be madesolely to the appended claims for purposes of determining the true scopeof the present invention.

I claim:
 1. A fluorescent taggant composition, comprising: aStokes-shifting taggant comprising the following chemical structure:

which absorbs radiation at a first wavelength and emits radiation at asecond wavelength, different from said first wavelength; and an oil orlubricant.
 2. The composition of claim 1, wherein said first wavelengthis about 760 to about 810 nanometers and said second wavelength is about810 nanometers to about 960 nanometers.
 3. The composition of claim 1,wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is present in a minor amount and theoil or lubricant is present in a major amount.
 4. The composition ofclaim 1, wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is present in an amount offrom about 0.1 to about 5 wt % in the oil or lubricant.
 5. Thecomposition of claim 1, wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is anoil-soluble taggant and is dissolved in said oil or lubricant.
 6. Thecomposition of claim 1, wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is anIndocyanine Green complex.
 7. The composition of claim 1, wherein theStokes-shifting taggant is an oil-dispersible taggant and is dispersedin said oil or lubricant, and optionally further comprising a surfactantor dispersant additive.
 8. The composition of claim 1, wherein theStokes-shifting taggant is added to said oils or lubricants at aconcentration of between about 10 ppm and about 100 ppm.
 9. A taggantcomposition, comprising: a oil-soluble or dispersible fluorescenttaggant comprising the following chemical structure:

an oil or lubricant.
 10. The taggant composition of claim 9, wherein thetaggant is a Stokes-shifting taggant, which absorbs infrared radiationat a first wavelength and emits infrared radiation at a secondwavelength, different from said first wavelength.
 11. The taggantcomposition of claim 10, wherein said first wavelength is about 760 toabout 810 nanometers and said second wavelength is about 810 nanometersto about 960 nanometers.
 12. The taggant composition of claim 11,wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is present in a minor amount and theoil or lubricant is present in a major amount.
 13. The taggantcomposition of claim 12, wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is presentin an amount of from about 0.1 to about 5 wt % in the oil or lubricant.14. The taggant composition of claim 10, wherein the Stokes-shiftingtaggant is an oil-soluble taggant and is dissolved in said oil orlubricant.
 15. The taggant composition of claim 10, wherein theStokes-shifting taggant is an Indocyanine Green complex.
 16. The taggantcomposition of claim 10, wherein the Stokes-shifting taggant is anoil-dispersible taggant and is dispersed in said oil or lubricant, andoptionally further comprising a surfactant or dispersant additive.